The Phoenix Circle of Lucas TVS Ltd has won the first place at the 8th State Level Quality Circle Competition for Operators, organised by CII Puducherry among its Member and Non-Member Companies. The Vetri QCC team Circle of Rane - Madras Ltd won the Second place, and SGIA 4W Zone Circle of Ucal Fuel Systems Ltd won the Third place. Twelve Quality Circles from 9 CII Member and Non-Member companies in Puducherry participated in the Competition.

The winners would participate in the CII Southern Regional Level Quality Circle Competition, which would be organised in December 2011.

Earlier, Mr K S Shetty, Vice-Chairman, CII Puducherry & Vice President, Hindustan National Glass & Industries Ltd, welcomed the Judges and the Team Members to the Competition. In his welcome address, he stressed that Quality Circle is one of the employee participation methods and it implies the development of skills, capabilities, confidence and creativity of the people through cumulative process of education, training, work experience and participation.

Dr D Sampangi Raman, Head, Indian Statistical Institute, Chennai, Dr A Sanjeeva Rao, Executive Director, Sanjeev Quality Consultants, Chennai, and Mr K Soundararajan, Director, Zen Academy, Chennai, were the Jury Members.

During the valedictory address, Mr M M Patel, Past Chairman, CII - Puducherry State Council & Managing Director, Divma Engg. Company Pvt. Ltd, Puducherry said formation of quality circles was becoming imperative in today's world where the customer's expectations keep changing and added that the concept enabled grass-root level employees to play a meaningful and significant role in their organisation.